Laughed or Ignored? I Prefer Laughed.

Yes, as the title imply, would I prefer to be laughed at or ignored? Well, what I received instead was an angry response. But put it this way, whether laughter or anger, I would be far happier to receive either of those than to be ignored. At least with an angry response, I know that whatever I had contributed has received attention. With laughter, that too is a response. But by being ignored, I have no idea if anyone had read my contribution to the discussion.

So what did I write to stir up this anger? The answer to that was, in one of my comments, I hinted at the possibility that humans and dinosaurs co-existed. Yes, you read that correctly.

Stegosaur at Ta Prohm Monastery, Cambodia 

My comment appeared when an atheist YouTuber posted a video asking whether his feelings were hurt after a barrage of insulting remarks were thrown at him. Those insulting comments mainly consisted of foul names and rudeness spouted at him in anger, mainly by "Christian" flat-earthers - from whom this kind of emotion is shown when an argument is lost and cannot be gainsaid. Although disagreeing with him on his commitment to Darwin's evolutionary theories, I had this to say to him:

Scimandan, I have always admired your level of education, your marathon runs, and the way you present yourself on video. Yet I am a Christian, a young-earth Creationist who believe that man and dinosaurs once co-existed.

I know, I'm aware that I'm one of those who should be ignored. But do you know what my real wish is?

For you and me to get together at a pub or coffee house for a two-hour, man-to-man discussion where we can exchange our views without prejudice. But I suppose both time and distance will prevent this from happening.

By the way, I'm not a flat-earther. Instead, I believe as much as you do that our planet is spherical. 

Good luck with your videos.

Then another commenter (not SciManDan) aimed one directly at me:

This is dreadful. People like you are charlatans, pagans, heathens and nothing more than heretics.

THERE IS ONLY ONE TRUE FAITH and that is:

Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Sikhism, Shinto, Judaism, Confucianism, Spiritism, Korean Shamanism, Caodaism, Bahai's Faith, Jainism, Cheondoism, Hoahaoism, Tenriism, Rastafari.

Or any infantile mumbo jumbo you can invent for yourself.

Theism is dying on its arse and not a moment too soon.

Send ALL your money now, you know the baby jesus (sic) needs it.

Here is no ignorant runt! This rather angry man looks to be well-educated. He names eighteen different faiths here, and there is quite a number which I had never heard about, but he is right on one issue: All the religions listed here are defined as salvation by works. And except Catholicism, Judaism and Islam, all the others are found in the far east of Asia, although I did see an edifice dedicated to Bahai's Faith on the slopes of Mt Carmel, overlooking the city of Haifa in Northern Israel.

Another also commented:

It would help if you had some evidence that dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time. The Noah flood is also a ridiculous fairy tale.

My answer takes the form of a series of questions. In the above photo, there is a carving of a Stegosaur at the Ta Prohm Monastery in Cambodia. This structure was completed in 1186 AD. That is 835 years ago up to the time of writing. Were the people back then very familiar with fossils? If so, were they able to flesh out the bones as accurately as our modern paleobiologists can do now? And assuming that they were able to flesh out the bones of an ancient beast, why did they feel it was so important to have an image of a living version carved inside a religious structure?

Or could it be - just could it be - a witness that this dinosaur was alive at the time the structure was built, and they preserved an image of it?

There are other images, even models of dinosaurs supposedly found in Mexico, Peru, and other parts of the Americas. But I don't feel it's right to include those in this blog due to their lack of authenticity. They could be fakes, and as such, I do not want to use these as evidence to prove the reliability of the Bible.

Ta Prohm Monastery, Cambodia

The YouTuber had posted his video just three days before I wrote this blog, but already over this short time, he had collected 77,687 views. How many would have read our discussion, who knows? However, I did reply to the first commenter that he was almost right that there are only two faiths: one is salvation by works, as defined by the 18 he had listed, and the other is salvation given as a free gift through faith in Christ, without any works done to earn it. I then quoted Romans 10:9, 13, where Paul writes that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

And verse 13: And whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

His response?

He recommended I join any of his long list of idiotic, non-existent religious groups to search for any magic (oops, he meant "truths") such as Pastafarianism, Frisbeetarianism, and Bullet Baba's Motorbike - a list of 24 pseudo-organisations in all. He then, in bad grammar and lacking punctuation, ends with:

Remember send money the baby jesus is desperate.

I have checked this guy's profile, but since his channel is empty, I wasn't able to find any information of his whereabouts, whether he was living in the UK or in the States. But, since the atheist YouTuber himself is English and lives here in the UK, I take it that this fellow lives here too. If true, then he mirrors the appalling state of our nation spiritually.

And two weeks previously, I walk through the streets of London, as already mentioned in my last blog, wheeling my partially disabled beloved from Waterloo Station to the Premier Inn hotel, just outside Euston Station. We passed massive crowds of England football fans, all cheering their team as if they had won the tournament already. They cheered for glory, but not for the glory of God, but for the nation, that is, for themselves.

We watched the match against Italy in our hotel room. Yet England lost in what is, in my opinion, the worst possible way, by a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw and extra time. This humiliation, this defeat, this anticlimax of the whole tournament - is God trying to tell us something? And now, the Olympic Games.

The opening performance at a Tokyo stadium lacked the verve which characterised both the Rio and the London Games within the past decade. But as we watched the athletes enter the stadium, all of them masked, all I could do was sigh. And so, they all marched into this huge chamber with a massive hole in the ceiling, through which firework displays are easily seen from inside, thus classifying the interior of the stadium as outdoors. Yet, they all had to wear masks, the athletes, the volunteers, the organising committee, and the 600 or so VIPs who occupied seating that would have accommodated around 66,000 spectators. Instead, the stadium was almost entirely empty, while outside in the streets of Tokyo, the people protest, calling for the Games to be cancelled - while the rate of Coronavirus infections keeps on growing in numbers.

Oh, what has happened to us? It's as though this pandemic is a fulfilment of the novel by H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, where a mighty British Empire of the 19th Century suffered a Martian invasion - right at its very heart - London. Here, the whole of the Earth, including the Empire, was at the mercy of an alien power over which they had absolutely no defence. But, after so many deaths, the remaining human inhabitants were rescued by the mercy of God, using bacteria - the most minute and the lowliest of all creatures - to infect every Martian and without an immune system, succeeded in killing them off, their corpses became food for the birds.

And so, after more than a year of lockdown and restrictions, July 19th - the so-called Freedom Day - came and went without any real significant changes. I would still have to wear a facemask if travelling by public transport, and on the London Underground, masks are still mandatory, thanks to the orders delivered by our present London mayor, Sadiq Khan.

Although I despise those face cloths, I would still wear one if it means keeping the peace. But yesterday, I dared walk into our local superstore maskless. At last, the absence of the door marshall checking us out at the shop's entrance gave me more confidence. However, I could see that the majority of shoppers continue to wear their masks. Apparently, all the female adults wore them. As for the men, the majority of them were also wearing them. But there were also several younger men going about maskless, making me feel a little better. And nobody gave any dirty looks.

2021 Olympic Opening ceremony, Tokyo.

And the churches! This week will mark the first Sunday we as a church can get together. After more than 16 months of weekly virtual services via the internet. There was something totally unnatural about this way of worshipping God, yet each week brought a reminder that we as a church continue to exist. One benefit has arisen from this pandemic. That is the weekday twenty-minute Zoom prayer meetings held every morning. As for one who has no car but gets everywhere by bicycle, any idea of cycling for 25 minutes to get to a 20-minute prayer meeting, then ride back home again, especially on a cold winter morning...

Nope. Here, a computer gives a big advantage, and I thank the Lord for the advance of technology that was unheard of by all previous generations. The good news is that our Zoom prayer meetings are here to stay.

And this week? Church life begins with a picnic. Nothing unusual about that. We, as a church, picnic every year. The only difference this time is that after three weeks of glorious Summer sunshine, this Sunday will have heavy rain and storms, according to the Meteorological Office forecast. Yep, typical British Summer! After all, Summer in Britain would not be Summer if we didn't have wind-driven rain! Great for our first meeting after 16 months.

But we're determined to picnic regardless of the weather. The only difference is that, should it rain, our food will be eaten inside the marquee, while raindrops impacting on the canvass outside could create a noise loud enough to drown out the sermon. Ah, don't we love our British Summers!

It's great to be back!